[ecrea] CFP: Queer Nostalgia and Queer Histories

*CFP: Queer Nostalgia and Queer Histories*

Special Issue of /Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture, /vol. 2, 
issue 2

Expected Publication Date: June 2017

Editors: Bridget Kies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Thomas J. 
West III, Syracuse University

The recent controversy over director Roland Emmerich’s feature film 
/Stonewall /(2015) for its rewriting of LGBT+ history as a history of 
white, cisgender men calls attention to the tensions in the contemporary 
media landscape’s portrayals of LGBT+ characters and stories.  In 
addition to the rewriting of history, the achievement of marriage 
equality has led to popular attitudes by some that history has been 
written and gay rights have been achieved.  Meanwhile, increased media 
attention for trans identities, led in part by Laverne Cox and Caitlyn 
Jenner, reveals the many ways in which the struggles for LGBT+ equality 
remain ongoing.

At the same time, we have observed a significant rise in the costume or 
historical drama, a genre that has, traditionally, enabled 
representations that eschew the gay/straight binary, and that offers the 
opportunity to reflect on our contemporary social context through 
allegory.  Some historically situated film and television, like 
/Stonewall/, looks to the past with nostalgia that seems to hearken to a 
“simpler” time in gay male history when intersectional identities could 
be neglected or appropriated.  Other films and television series, such 
as /Mad Men/ and /The Tudors/, attempt to shed light on the neglected 
and erased histories of LGBT+ people. The scope of this special issue is 
therefore to examine ways in which history and nostalgia offer us the 
opportunity for more diverse or more complex representations, 
interpretations, and interrogations of queer identities.

In this issue, we invite papers that explore the tensions produced 
within historical fiction or nostalgic media.  We are especially 
interested in those papers that explore intersectional identities. 
Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

   * Examinations of films like /Stonewall, A Single Man, Milk, Kill Your
     Darlings, Pride/ or television series such as /Spartacus, The
     Tudors, Reign, Downton Abbey, Penny Dreadful, The Borgias, Mad Men/
   * Condemnation of LGBT+ characters in historical fictional media
   * Romanticizing the struggles of the LGBT+ rights movement
   * Representations or significant absences of intersectional identities
     in historically situated media
   * Examinations of the /oeuvres /of particular directors known for
     their attention to historical issues or for nostalgic aesthetics,
     e.g. Todd Haynes and Gus Van Sant
   * Historicizing the gay/straight binary or undoing the gay/straight
     binary in history
   * Reception of historically situated media within LGBT+ groups or the
     New Right

Completed essays of 5,000-7,000 words should be submitted no later than 
June 1, 2016.  Essays should follow Intellect’s style guide, including 
preferred British spellings and Harvard citation style, which can be 
found at: 
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/style%20guide(journals)-1.pdf 
<http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/style%20guide%28journals%29-1.pdf%29>

Submissions and questions about the issue should be addressed to the 
editors Bridget Kies and TJ West at (queernostalgia /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(queernostalgia /at/ gmail.com)>.


Bridget Kies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies
LGBT Studies
(bkies /at/ uwm.edu) <mailto:(bkies /at/ uwm.edu)>

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